Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a bicycle brake and shift operating device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a bicycle brake and shift operating device that is mounted to a handlebar of a bicycle for operating a braking device and for electrically operating a gear changer apparatus.
Background Information
There are known bicycle gear changing devices (also called gear shifting devices) that are electric powered and configured such that they can be controlled electrically so as to change among a plurality of gear positions. This kind of electric-powered gear changing device is operated with a shift operating device that can be mounted to a brake bracket or a brake lever of a brake operating device (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,854,180). This conventional shift operating device electrically operates a gear changing device such as a front derailleur and a rear derailleur. Similarly to cable-type shift operating devices, a shift operating device is arranged on the right side of the handlebar for the rear derailleur and a shift operating device is arranged on the left side of the handlebar for the front derailleur. Each shift operating device has a gear shift switch having a lever member that pivots both in an outward direction and an inward (toward the center) direction of the handlebar from an operation start position. The indexing position changes by one position in the upshift direction when the lever member is pivoted in one direction and one position in the downshift direction when the lever member is pivoted in the other direction.